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224: Complete a Time Study to Boost Productivity Now · The Efficient Advisor: Tactical Business Advice for Financial Planners

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Have you ever had one of those days where you feel like you were just so busy but at the end of the day you feel like you didn't actually get anything done?
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Those are the absolute worst.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: You did so many things, you never sat down, you never stopped, and maybe you're even actually feeling spent at the end of the day.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Right, but those eight hours worth of things that you did just weren't the items on the to-do list that you actually needed to get done.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: That have a real ROI for the business, and we're going to talk about how to fix that.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: So as advisors, we wear multiple hats and we juggle countless tasks.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: It makes it so easy to lose track of where we are actually spending our time.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Conducting a time study can be a game changer for advisors who want to improve productivity, to streamline more processes or at least identify the processes that need to be streamlined and really just to regain control over your day.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: But it's not just about doing a time study.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: It's about actually doing something with the time study.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: What you glean from it is actually what matters most.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: And before you think, ugh, time study.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: I know you guys, it's the worst and I'm never, ever going to ask you to do something that I don't do myself, and I am currently in the midst of a time study and I, even after 20 years of being in this industry, I'm still doing time studies and I still glean so much insight, even having a pretty tight model week.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you start to drift in the lines between how you know how much time you're spending on this task versus that, versus business and personal.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it starts to blur.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: So stick around to the end.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: I've got a download to go along with this episode to help you execute a time study and to analyze the results, and I'll tell you how to get that at the end of this episode.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: You can also find the link in the show notes.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: So I promise you this exercise is going to totally reframe how you spend your day.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: All right, let's dive in.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Look, I know you're here because you know it's possible to step out of overwhelm and to step out of the swirling tornado that is your business and actually have energy leftover for your family at the end of the day, right, while still having your dream business the business that you are running, instead of it running you.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: If you're new to the Efficient Advisor, I'm Libby Grywe.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: I started from scratch, built and sold by age 37, a 100% referral only planning practice that I grew to seven figures as a solo advisor, all while working just three days a week and taking off 14 weeks a year.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: I'm here just to walk alongside you and to show you how to do exactly the same and help you take immediate action on the most important strategies for scaling, organizing and creating less stress and overwhelm in your business.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: We are about to transform your practice together, so move over exhaustion and get out of the way.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Advisor ADD.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: It is time to take that one right next step to build a business and a life that you love.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about the time study.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Doing a time study is so beneficial, and I'm going to give you kind of a step-by-step guide on how to conduct one effectively, how to analyze the results, and then we're going to talk about how to make necessary adjustments in your schedule to optimize your time.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: And the first thing I'll say is nobody enjoys doing a time study.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: I did an episode with Michael Kitsis I'll drop that in the show notes below where he talked about doing a time study and we both kind of lamented about how much we hate it, and every time so, like I always say to my groups when we start our group coaching program, I am never, ever, ever and this is included for my listeners I'm never going to ask you to do something or tell you to spend a precious second of your life on something that I don't think is actually going to make a big difference for you.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: So doing a time study can feel at first blush kind of like a fluffy like a fluffy activity.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: But, like I mentioned in the intro, I have been doing time studies for 20 years and never once have I done one and not learned something from it, right.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: So in our group coaching program in the beginning we do a time study and I'm going to encourage my advisors, so old groups that have been through the program.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: I reach back out and say guess what Time to do a time study.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: And there's a couple of different variations of time studies that we do.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: There's time studies for how you're actually spending your time, which is what we're going to talk about today.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: And then there are time studies of how long does it take for you to execute some of your processes right, and the goal is to get better, to get more efficient, to get more streamlined, to do it better, faster, smarter, cheaper, easier or whatever.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: So in the group approaching program we have a group that starts in August and a group that starts in January.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: So I do it two times a year alongside of them and it is amazing how bad habits creep in right.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: So I'm pretty, you know, ocd about my model week.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: But am I actually right and this is where doing a time study really comes into play of am I actually following my time week and my model week?
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Cause I'll do.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: I'm going to do an episode on model week next week and kind of how to design your perfect schedule.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: And every time I talk about model week because I'm going to do an episode on model week next week and kind of how to design your perfect schedule and every time I talk about model week, I have advisors and I even myself would say like, oh, I have one and it doesn't work that well.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Or gosh, you know I have one but I'm not really following it because it doesn't work.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: 90% of the time in my own practice when I felt overwhelmed or I felt stressed, it was because I was working outside of my model week.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: I wasn't doing what I was supposed to do when I was supposed to be doing it at the most optimal time of doing it.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: So even doing it twice a year is so helpful for me because I get to try new model weeks.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Right, you're never going to find one.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: You're never going to find one.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: You're going to constantly be reiterating and really figuring out the one that works for you, and the minute you find one that you're like, oh my gosh, this is amazing.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Everything will start to flow.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: And then life will throw you another curveball.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Right, you'll have one of your kids that maybe was at home, go off to kindergarten, or you'll have another baby.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Or for me, I got divorced.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: I was not planning on that and now I am a 50-50 mom.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Right, I have my kids for an entire week at a time and then I don't have a week.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: So you're always going to have to modify and adjust.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: And so for me now, being a single mom, I have two different weeks.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: I have a week that I have my boys and I have a week that I don't have my boys, and I have just spent the last year really kind of trying to understand the cadence of that and the nuances and how I can do my best work and still be fully present for them and, like I said, a lot of bad habits kind of creep in right Like oh, I'm just going to do this task here or this task here, or oh, I'll push that you know deep work off to another day, cause I just don't feel like it and I ended up doing stuff outside of my model week.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: I add things, I say yes to things that I really genuinely don't have time for, which I just have to like squeeze in and that takes away from other stuff, and that's where the stress and the overwhelm always set in.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: So doing this time study is super beneficial.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: The first thing that we're going to identify when we're doing it flat out time wasters.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Without realizing it, you are probably spending hours and hours on low priority tasks or meetings that don't really move the needle in any capacity, and a time study helps pinpoint really where your time is being wasted.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Another way that time studies are really beneficial for advisors is it really genuinely it improves efficiency, which obviously this is kind of my thing.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: But by understanding how long certain tasks take, you can create more realistic schedules, you can reduce that idea of over commitment that I just talked about and avoid last minute scrambles, and you also can understand how long it takes a time to do a task, but also give that task the appropriate amount of time, because we all know there's that theory that the amount of time that you give something is definitely how long it takes you to do it, and that is so true.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: The third way that I really see a massive benefit coming out of a time study is just optimizing delegation.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: You'll clearly be able to see what tasks can be handed off to team members or outsourced right and really just allows you to focus on doing those.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: I hate to use the term higher value activities, but that's kind of an industry thing, but you know what I mean the things that you do that move the needle, the visionary work that you do as a CEO building out a process or something that's going to make you work smarter and faster, spending more time adding value to clients, creating content that adds value to clients, being able to add another meeting or two.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: I can remember years and years ago my business coach.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: I was making probably at the time this was a long time ago probably about $300,000 a year and I was holding about five client meetings a week and I just remember her saying to me, libby, if you could double the amount of clients that you could see.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: So if you could double your capacity, isn't it realistic to think that you could double your income and you could be seeing, or you could be making, about $600,000 a year?
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: And I mean, first of all, that's the benefit of working with a coach.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Sometimes they say stuff to you that's so like duh, but you're so in it that you don't even see it.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: And that's really where okay, well, in order to be able to add, right.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: So then I set out on this mission in order to add in five more client meetings, which isn't just the five hours of meetings, it's the prep, it's the planning, it's the whatever is required of you before, during and after and in between the meetings.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: How do I actually modify my schedule?
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: What do I give away so that I can double the amount of time that I'm spending in front of clients?
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Therefore doubling my revenue, right, and so optimizing delegation is something you'll be able to very clearly see when we go through at the end and we use the old fashioned highlighters and we do some analysis.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: It also enhances your focus, right.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: So just knowing where your time goes can help you stay on track to help you avoid distractions.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: And really just for me at least, when I do this twice a year, it's just a reminder to be super intentional about how I structure my work day.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: You know, and we talk a lot about work-life balance.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: You know really more probably, work-life blend, but for advisors, blending work and life can be very challenging, and a time study will really help you create more balance by, you know, just identifying those opportunities of when am I going to do my personal stuff without sacrificing the productivity that you need from the business?
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: So, obviously, we all know there's a ton of benefits that come out of it, but I just want to be really clear that those five things will make a significant, a significant difference in your business.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Years and years and years ago, we used to host a live workshop in our office where advisors from all over the country would come in and we would teach them for two days.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: We trained them on our systems and processes and I remember thinking about, okay, well, what are all the things that I could teach advisors?
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: And then like, okay, well, what?
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: And that's really.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: You know, I feel like that would be a five-year program, right, there's a lot of stuff that we could do.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Okay, you know, a year.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: What would I teach advisors in a year?
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: What if I only had 10 months?
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: What if I only had six months?
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: What if I only had a week?
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: What if I only had two days?
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: What if I only had an hour?
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Right, and this is kind of a process that I used to prioritize.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Um, those two days, like right, if I, what would be the things that would have the biggest impact on people?
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: And one of the things that I always always came out with at the end of that, like what are one of the most important things, it was if I could teach advisors how to get onto an ideal week or an ideal biweekly schedule, like I have now, or an ideal month or an ideal quarter, I don't care what it looks like for you, that would be the biggest game changer.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: And I mean, I have so many advisors that I work with that have literally doubled or tripled their revenue, that are working way less than they ever have, and most of them pinpoint it back to a couple of things.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: One, getting their systems and processes down, automating, delegating, deleting things that don't matter and streamlining everything else right, building out some simple templates, you know, things that allow them to operate more efficiently, and building a model week that works for them and their team, and being really intentional with how they spend every minute.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: And in order to be able to work you know part time and run a seven figure practice you've got to be intentional.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: To work, you know part time and run a seven figure practice, you've got to be intentional.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: End of story.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about how you actually do this right.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: So there are a couple of different ways to do a time study and really what we're looking to do is we want to find a period of time in your calendar for our group coaching.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: I suggest a two week window for me, because I have this funky a week B week thing when I have my boys and when I don't have my boys I'm doing a month.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: So when I do a time study, I do it for a month and I try to pick weeks that are normal, and so this is what I tell the group.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: I'm like try to find a two week window where things are normal, meaning you don't have um a half day in the office because you're volunteering at the kids school or it's not the first week of school, it's not where you're taking off early Friday for a vacation or you have some travel for work involved in the middle of the week.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: We want to find a couple of weeks that feel like, to the best of your ability, that they're normal, and you don't want to modify your behavior during the time study.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: You just want to do your work and capture the activities that you're doing right.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: So we want to find a quote unquote typical week.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: We want to avoid periods where you've got weird things going on, because those won't give you an accurate like an accurate reflection of your typical routine, and then we want to start just tracking everything.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: So for me, the best way that I do this and there's a download that goes along with this episode is I use a paper time tracker and I literally and I use paper and this is very manual and very old fashioned of me, but I use paper because it literally sits on my desk and then I can hand write in what I did, and I do it in 15 to 30 minute increments and um, so if I'm playing on my phone, I put that in there.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: If I'm checking my email, if I'm calling my mom, if I am going to the bathroom and making lunch, like, whatever I'm doing with my time, I'm documenting it and I've tried using apps.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: So, on the episode that I mentioned with Michael, kit says we talked about apps, like some people use apps, the thing he found and the thing that I found is that I wasn't actually doing it all day, like I wasn't entering my things and I'd wait, and then I'd be like, oh wait, what was I doing with my time?
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: And I just wasn't getting accurate results.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Now Michael said he comes out of a meeting or every hour he has his assistant doing it, so she'll come in and say what were you doing?
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: And he will just verbally go I was doing this, this, this, this and this, and she documents it for him.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Now, for me, I just have this tracker on my desk and I'm literally just writing it in there all day long and I have to be brutally honest with myself about what I'm spending my time doing.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Now, if you're one of those people that can use a time tracking app and you're going to be really responsible, there's a couple that I would recommend.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: There's toggle and there's another one called clockify.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: So toggle is T, o, g, g, l and clockify is C, l, o, c, k, I, f, y, but I like to use this as super simple spreadsheet and I'm document what I'm doing, for how long, and if you have to be, you have to be honest with yourself.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: So if you spent 15 minutes scrolling media you know social media because you went to look at something and then got distracted and all of a sudden you're looking at your friends, sisters, cousins wedding photos from 2019, put that down.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Okay, and we're doing it in a way that's just judgment free.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Just write down what you're doing, doing it in a way that's just judgment-free.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Just write down what you're doing.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Don't judge what it was, or if it's admin, if it's client work, if it's wasting time, if it's personal time, whatever.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: What we do also want to note is interruptions, so make a note anytime that you were distracted or interrupted or something that pulled you away from doing the tasks that you were working on.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: This will help you identify where you may need to set boundaries or block out time for uninterrupted work, because I can remember and I've talked about this before on the show, but I can remember a day where I had like the whole eight hour day blocked out to work on some big tasks and my team just kept popping in and I started making tally marks and at the end of the day, I had no joke, like 40 tally marks and yes, it was just people popping in and asking a quick question.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Because I was there, right, and I knew I had this uninterrupted, like I wasn't prepping for anything in particular and this was a boundary issue that I needed to work on Right anything in particular and this was a boundary issue that I needed to work on right.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: But I could not believe in, like one day I was interrupted 40 plus times, right.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: And so this is where we then have to identify like, okay, we need to create time for our team so that we can answer all the questions that they have, the last thing that we want.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: So we want to know interruptions, um, and I just do this with a sharpie marker, I just put like a line wherever I get interrupted.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: And then we want to talk about the joy factor, right, so we want to track, kind of, what your energy is like during the day and what brings you joy.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: So, as you're doing tasks, like, for every maybe hour or so, put a smiley face, a mid face or a mad face, right, because business isn't always just about doing that quote unquote high value activity, right, the thing that makes you the most money, blah, blah, blah.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: There's also a piece of this like this job can be so draining.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: I talk to advisors on the daily who are making insane amounts of money, who are disenchanted and who are just tired and a little burned out and a little exhausted, and often it's because they're now doing the business part of this they're not enjoying.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: They're not doing the things that they're enjoying.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: So we just want to track joy.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: We also want to track our energy, right.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Like where do you get the most energy?
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Just be mindful.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Like oh, my goodness, when I'm doing X, y and Z, I'm so excited, I love it.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: My clients give me so much energy.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: I love client meetings.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Um, that's amazing for me.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Ooh, I hate doing detail work.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: I don't want to put stuff into money guide pro.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: I don't want to enter data I.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: That just makes me sad, sucks my energy away, because we're going to use that information to build our model week and rearrange the tasks to align with our joy structure but also our energy, and we're going to talk about that next week.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you've done your time study.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: You've got two weeks worth of data.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: On a quote unquote normal that we all know there's no normal in financial planning, but let's pretend there's a thing called normal and you had two normal weeks.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Here's what I want you to do we want to categorize the tasks, and you categorize them however you want, but when I was running my financial planning practice, I categorized them like this I would get out a bunch of highlighters and I'd look at my timesheet, right when I, where I tracked everything, and I would literally go in and highlight was this an administrative task?
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Was this an operational task?
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: And every category had its own color, right?
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: So was this administrative?
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Was this operational?
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Maybe you do marketing tasks, right?
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: So, was this administrative?
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Was this operational?
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Maybe you do marketing tasks, right, you're creating content, or you're recording video, or you're posting to Facebook or you're commenting on other people's Facebooks or whatever that looks like.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Okay, maybe you're doing investments.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Maybe you want to have a different color for everything investment, research related, and then maybe you want to have a color for anything client specific, so things that you need your education and experience to execute.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: So maybe it's meeting with clients, talking to clients on the phone, prepping for client meetings and don't get that one twisted, because there's a lot of prep that can happen, that you don't need your experience in education, right.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: So things that require you and you alone to do, and maybe you have another color for, like, ceo activities or business vision setting or, you know, building out, you know, things that will save you time in the future, processes like things we're working on the business.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: So there's a couple of different categories that you might have.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: You might have personal and professional development and then have a color for personal, all right.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: So I'm doing a time study this week and pink is my personal.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: I cannot get over how much pink I have on here, whether it's, oh, a quick call to the insurance company or ooh, let me hop on my app for my doctor really quick and renew a prescription for the kids, or like whatever it is.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: I'm just sitting here literally staring at it as I record this going.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Wow, there is a ton of pink intermixed in with my green, which for me in this business is group coaching, one-on-one coaching, keynote speaking and working on those types of activities for those things, discovery calls, et cetera, things that will actually be for coaching, right.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: And then I've got business development, I've got podcasting.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: So I have a bunch of different categories on here, right, but I'm just noticing, wow, there's a lot of personal stuff dripping in.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: So I like to analyze mine using this color coding, because it's very visual for me.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: So get yourself five or six highlighters and different colors, pick your categories and highlight away and you'll start to see where we're looking for a patterns.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Right, we're also looking at like.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: So are there certain things that you're doing that are taking up way more time than expected?
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Are you spending too much time on lower impact activities?
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Right, look for patterns that show how your time is being distributed.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Look for patterns of those interruptions, or?
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Wow, it seems like every day around lunch, my team pops in and has a bunch of questions for me.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Right, we're not again, we're not dealing with this yet.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: We're just analyzing and looking for these patterns.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Now we want to take the time distribution and compare it to our goals, right, and our priorities.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: What are your business goals?
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Are you dedicating enough time to the high priority tasks, like strategic planning, client development or moving a prospect to becoming a client, or revenue generating activities?
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Right, if not, if we're not spending a lot of time doing those things, so, like for me.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Looking at mine, I'm going wow, there's a lot of a lot of pink in here that I could probably redistribute or do a better job time blocking, okay.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: So then we also want to look for time wasters and bottlenecks.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: So identify the tasks that are taking up too much time without providing a corresponding benefit, right?
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: So these could include meetings that are way too long.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: So are you meeting with clients for 90 minutes, two hours, with no different yield and results than you are in your 45 minute meetings or 60 minute meetings?
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Um, we're looking for, you know, repetitive administrative tasks that you could easily screen your screen, screen quarter yourself for doing, or you scribe or something like that and give away.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Are there constant interruptions?
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: Are there things that your team can't do because you're taking too long to do them?
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: You are the bottleneck.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: And then again, kind of evaluating those energy levels.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: So taking note of when you felt most productive versus when you were dragging right, did you need that afternoon coffee at two o'clock?
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: And the answer is always yes, whether you need the coffee or not.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: A two o'clock coffee is always like right on the money, but you might find that there's certain times of day that are more conducive for you for deep work, while there's other times that are better for lighter tasks.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Right, when you look at your time study, were you doing what you were supposed to be doing when you were supposed to be doing it?
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: So if you've already got a model week out there, compare it against your model week.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: And that's what I was doing this morning.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Right, I was looking at my model week.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: So that's the I was doing this morning.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: Right, I was looking at my model week.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: So that's the week that I've laid out and said I'm going to do this from this time to this time and I'm in alignment.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: But there's so much of this like little personal stuff that I'm like, oh, I'll do that quick, or oh, I'll do that quick, and we know the cost of time.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Switching right, task switching is brutal.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Like, even though I might just be renewing a prescription, really quick, it takes a few minutes for me to go grab my phone and log into the thing and do the thing, and then you know.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: So that's the kind of stuff that we're wanting to just start to look at.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: And then next week, on the episode we're going to get into, it's going to be a replay of episode 12, which is how to build the perfect, your perfect schedule and we're going to get into it's going to be a replay of episode 12, which is how to build your perfect schedule.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: We're going to take all of this data and, if you do a good time study, you're going to be able to build a better model week than if you were to just sit down from scratch and say here's what the most ideal model week would be.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Right, we really do want to capture all of the tasks that you're doing, and this is why I suggest two weeks instead of just one.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: And is it annoying to track your time for two weeks?
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, yes, it's so annoying.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: I'm tracking my time for a month.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: It's literally the worst.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: But it's a really great reminder, a really great kick in the butt of am I actually doing what I said I was going to do?
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: When I said I was going to do it?
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Because often, like I mentioned before, we'll say, oh, this model week isn't working for me.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Well, the real question is, are you actually following your model week?
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: And if you jump right into building your model week, it's still better than nothing, but if you're coming in with really good data and what I found interesting on here?
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: So I have a couple blocks for deep work.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Right, like this is for research, writing new podcast episodes, maybe finding a really good resource for clients.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: And I'll find when I do my time study like I have this time blocked for deep work.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: But then I'm jumping around because I'm doing research and it makes me think of something else and I'm like, oh, I'm going to handle that really quick.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: And I'm noticing there's all of these little just things that I slid in under the radar into my deep work time and so if I hadn't done the time study, I might be like, well, that's so weird, I'm not getting everything done during my deep work time that I'm supposed to be getting done.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Well, it's not that I didn't give myself enough time, it's that I'm not actually doing what I'm supposed to be doing when I said I was going to do it.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Or there might be things where I'm looking here like, oh, I gave myself I don't know, let's say, x number of time to interview a couple podcast guests, write the intros and outros and do a little additional research so that I can add some stuff to the episode.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: Maybe I said I only needed an hour for that and it really took me an hour and a half.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: So this is where doing a time study before you go in to build out your model week is so incredibly helpful.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Okay, but let's keep talking about optimizing your time.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you've gone through with the highlighter.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: You've divided yourself into marketing, prospecting activities, administrative operations, service and selling, maybe investment research, ceo activities, working on the business.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: Whatever You've got your categories down, there's a couple more things that we're going to do.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: We are going to start to want to go through those activities and really identify what are the again, I hate this term, but I don't know what else to call it high impact activities, the ones that have an ROI, right?
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: So, for an example, I know for me, I have ADD.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: So sometimes people with ADD and this might be you one of the ways that we procrastinate is we do tasks that are very important and keep us very busy and like a good example would be like doing accounting.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Right, we might be inputting receipts and looking at different categories of our business, but it actually doesn't impact our revenue If it costs a little money.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: But you could free up your time and actually expand your business potential.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Is this an area that I could actually delegate away?
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: So you've heard me say, uh, automate, delegate, streamline or just straight up delete.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: And this is where we really want to go through and say like, okay, is this something I can automate?
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Is this something that I could delegate by just taking the time to create an SOP around it or to just take the time to teach somebody else on my team?
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Is this something that I could delegate?
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: Is this activity, does it even matter?
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: So I have a lot of advisors that I work with that spend a ton of time in their accounting software looking at P&Ls every single month.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: And, okay, great, that's important to know your numbers and all of the things, but do we need to do it monthly?
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: Is this something?
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: Does the monthly looking at the PNL actually change anything for you?
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: What if you were to look at it on a quarterly basis?
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Would that be just as impactful?
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: And, man, maybe you could free up an hour.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: And now and this is where you know I feel productive, right, looking at my P&L, it feels like I'm working on the business.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: But am I actually doing anything different as a result of this information?
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: No, I'm just using it as a glorified way to play office or to feel like I was being productive.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: Right, I can cross that off the list.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: I was doing accounting work, so we do want to focus on the whole Pareto principle, right, we want to focus on the 20% of activities that we're doing that generate 80% of the results and we want to block out time when we do our model week next week, we want to block out time each day to actually work on these high impact tasks.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Okay, we're also looking again for things that I can delegate or automate, and sometimes this is and I'm going to be talking a lot more about automation here.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: On the podcast, I'm getting way deep on the whole chat GPT thing we did.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: We had Ben Olson on the podcast.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: He's an AI guru.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: Um, he came into our group coaching program and did a teaching on how to use chat GPT and I'm telling you what the advisors were like hey, that was like the best 45 minutes I've ever spent.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: I made my whole team watch it.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: So I've gone down this like chat GPT rabbit hole here recently.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Like, in addition to what Ben's taught me, I've been doing all this additional research and it's amazing what's available.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: So sometimes I think it's even just looking for tasks Like so for me, is there a way that I can get my CRM to talk with my outlook and can I create a zap from Zapier with that?
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: And it's like can I just?
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: I just need time to look that stuff up and sit down and put on my calendar.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, go to Zapier and look at all the different apps that it connects and is there a way to take this thing that you're doing and automate it?
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: So, same thing my friend, adam Holt, who runs the Rethink podcast.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: He also is the inventor of AssetMap.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: He and I were talking about this once and he was saying advisors have and I could not agree more, because this was me have so much technology and we don't even know all the technology that we have and what it's capable of.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: And, like I know, we used Salesforce and Salesforce did so much more than we knew.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: Same thing we used MoneyGuide.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: Moneyguide did so many more things that we even could scratch the surface on.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: And we had to be so intentional about carving out time in our calendars mostly my director of operations to actually take the time to see what's new.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: What can it do now that it didn't do a month ago?
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: What else is available?
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: Can I just Google?
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Is there a way for my ClickUp task management system to talk to my Outlook right, or my Calendly.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: Can that integrate into my CRM?
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Like, there's so many different things that exist out there that we don't even know that they're available.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: So can we look for things to automate or delegate?
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: Then, of course, in the next episode we're going to get into batching similar tasks.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: So, instead of jumping between tasks, start batching similar things together, setting aside specific times for responding to all of your emails.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: And there's a whole episode called Stop the Inbox Insanity with my productivity specialist friend, amber De La Garza, and we talk about blocking time and how, like for me, not having a gap between appointments and doing appointments back to back not only kept me on time, but I didn't waste that time in between.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: So and we'll get into that into next week's episode as well but can you find ways to block time?
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: So if distractions and, um, you know, interruptions are common, can you set boundaries around your work hours and block out time on your calendar for focused work?
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: You set boundaries around your work hours and block out time on your calendar for focused work.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: And this could mean, you know, setting a do not disturb sign.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: So I had a do not disturb sign that I would put on my door and it was basically just, you know, a picture of my director of operations and you know, like that, the no symbol, like the Ghostbusters symbol over top of her, and I would literally put it on my door and close the door and I'd say I'm going to go work for two hours, I'm going to close the door, no interruptions, even if you have snacks.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, if you have snacks, you're allowed to come in, but don't say anything, just leave the snacks and slowly back away and close the door.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: Um, but we want to batch similar tasks.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: We want to block our time, we want to set some boundaries.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Uh, we want to look for those areas of waste.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: We want to set some boundaries.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: We want to look for those areas of waste.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: We want to adjust our schedule for energy and we want to organize our day based on our energy levels.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: So, for example, if you're most productive in the morning, schedule your most challenging tasks during that time, reserving low energy periods for administrative tasks.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: Or you know, if you're really, really creative at the beginning of the week and you find by the end of the week that you don't feel like creating content, or you don't want to record that podcast or make that YouTube video.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: You do better with that.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: At the beginning of the week, or maybe by the end of the week, you're all burned out on all the deep thinking and you want to do the creative stuff, and then we want to review it all and then we want to repeat this process.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: So a time study really isn't a one and done.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: We want to set a reminder in our task management system to repeat this process every few months, or you could do it again whenever you feel like your schedule is maybe slipping out of control, right?
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: So I was going right before this group coaching round started.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: I was going through this period where I'm going.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: What the heck is going on?
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: I feel like I'm just like a chicken with my head cut off, and I feel like I'm bouncing all over the place, and now that I'm doing this time study, it's like, well, no wonder I've kind of abandoned what was working really well for me, and so just the awareness alone helps me get back on track.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: So the other thing that we can do at the end of a time study is what I call the start, stop, continue and this is really a very, very rudimentary exercise, but really the idea is taking a notebook and if you're in our group program, I'll give you guys this template.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: But it's here are the things like start right, start at the top of the page, stop in the middle of the page, continue at the bottom of the page, and this is where we're going to document.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Here are the things we need to start doing.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: And then we're going to document here are the things that I'm doing, that I need.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: I just need to stop doing.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: And then here's the things that are really working, that I need to continue doing, and it sounds so basic and it's so helpful.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: And then you just make a plan Okay, how am I going to start doing these things?
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to start blocking my time, I'm going to start holding my meetings back to back, I'm going to start doing rapid fire, power hours or iron butt time, and those are all productivity strategies that I talk about in one of the episodes.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: It's like eight habits or eight productivity hacks or something like that.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: I will link it in the show notes.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: Maybe I'll do that as a replay here soon too, just to give you more ideas, tactical ideas and ways of utilizing time-saving techniques for productivity in your calendar.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: In fact, I'm making a note right now.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: See, there's those perfect example of tasks switching.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: I literally hit pause, pulled up our content calendar, typed in replay of the eight productivity hacks and sent a note to my content manager, and now I'm back going.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Wait, what did I talk about?
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Where was I?
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: So that is the perfect example of what I need to stop doing.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: And see, even though I've been at this for two decades, I'm the first one to admit that when something is working so incredibly well, I still stray from it.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: I still stop doing it.
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: If I stop following the process that I was using, and that's when I can tell things feel a little bit more.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: I feel that overwhelm start to creep in, I feel a little bit more stressed, and it's when I get off of those habits and I really have that white space in my calendar every week to kind of just think about what went well this week.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: What do I need to start, stop and continue.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: So this is an activity that I do every Friday.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: What do I need to start, what do I need to stop, what do I need to continue doing?
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: And you know, looking back at how you're spending your time is so incredibly valuable and it's something that I really want to encourage you to undertake, to maximize your productivity and to make the most of your time.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: It's this finite resource, and by understanding how your time is spent, you can eliminate efficiencies, you can redirect and refocus on those higher impact activities, the things that are going to move the needle in your business.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: You can identify what to automate, what to delegate, what's maybe a stop, what's a delete.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: Like, hey, this, I'm doing this thing, like I'm checking my accounting once a month when really I don't even need to do that.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: I should probably just look at it quarterly, right?
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: And then, what else can I streamline?
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: What else could I create a template for?
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: This is another area that, when we're doing the analysis, right, we're looking at it, going, wow, why did it take me so long to write those emails?
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: Maybe I should create a template for that.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Maybe that's a great thing to have a conversation with with chat GPT.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: I know that sounds so weird, but that's literally the best way to use chat GPT as a conversational method, right?
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: And how, then, do I use all this information to create a schedule that aligns with my personal and business goals?
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: Time is not a renewable resource, so we want to take control of it and we want to use it wisely.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: So stay tuned for next week's episode on using this data from your time study and how to design the perfect schedule, and then stay tuned again for a replay of the episode of the eight productivity hacks.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: I can't even remember what the episode's called in the moment, but eight productivity hacks, or different ways for you to implement time-saving techniques into your schedule.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: I hope this was valuable.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: Thank you, guys, so much for showing up every week.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: I would love to talk more about this with you out in the Efficient Advisor community over on Facebook.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: We've got about 2,300 advisors maybe 2,400 advisors in there, and it's just become such a cool place.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: I love this community.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: You guys are so amazing at answering each other's questions and sharing resources, and it's exactly what I envisioned when I started it a couple of years ago.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: And it's exactly what I envisioned when I started it a couple of years ago.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: And, of course, I hang out over on LinkedIn, so I'd love for you to join me there and then you can grab a copy of the time study template that I use.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: Um, it's actually.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: It was designed by one of the members of our group coaching program.
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: She took the one that I had and made it even more awesomer, um, so she has given us the ability to use her more awesomer version.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: So, even if you've downloaded the model week template in the past, go back and redownload this one.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: It's even better for tracking your time.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: Thank you, guys so much, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your week.